Germany To Allow For Third Gender On Birth Certificates

Is this a major paradigm shift?

By
Sam Lansky

Aug 20, 2013

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A pretty significant thing just quietly happened in Germany, according to the German paper Der Spiegel (via BuzzFeed): Starting on November 1, Germany will be the first European country to allow parents to leave the child's gender indeterminate on their birth certificate. (Similar legislation was passed in Australia in 2011, but previously had yet to pass in Europe or the Americas.)

Going forward, German birth certificates will have three options: "Male," "female" and "blank." The third option would be used for a number of reasons — if babies are born with characteristics of both genders, if parents want to give their children the latitude to select their gender identity later in life, or to remain gender-free. Kind of a big deal, no?

Passports, which currently have only "M" and "F" options, are already being discussed, with the possibility for a third option — "X" — being made available.

The decision is being regarded as a huge step in the fight against transgender and intersex discrimination in the European Union, and broadening the conversation about gender being more than a binary — but it's also bound to be controversial.

Case in point: Searching for a stock photo with the term "baby" turns up 92,096; searching for a stock photo with the term "gender ambiguous baby" turns up exactly 0. You do the math.

No, in all seriousness, maybe a little broadening of the conversation about gender would be a good thing. Even just for my stock photo purposes.